Peter Beckett mercy dash: How English yachtie tried to save ex-Napier councillor in Guatemala

Ex-pat Kiwi Peter Beckett died in a Central America hospital despite a dramatic rescue mission involving a kind-hearted English yachtie and four volunteer firefighters in a crocodile-infested river in Guatemala. Photo / Prime Video

* Peter Beckett’s boat cleaner raised the alarm after finding the gravely ill 68-year-old on his catamaran anchored in a river in Guatemala.

* In the pitch black, a dramatic rescue mission — featuring a nearby English yachtie and four volunteer firefighters — rushed to the scene through crocodile-infested waters to help.

* Englishman Alex Carter said he didn’t hesitate to help after his own near-death experience in Guatemalan waters in late 2023.

Warning: Includes distressing content

The kind-hearted English yachtie who answered a night-time SOS to rush to an ailing Peter Beckett has opened up on the dramatic rescue mission on a Guatemalan river.

Beckett, a former New Zealand local body politician — who was initially charged and convicted of his second wife’s death, before having the conviction overturned on appeal — died late last month aged 68.

A one-term Napier City councillor, he spent the last few years living on his beloved catamaran sailing around Central America.

But on February 8, Beckett was discovered gravely ill by a woman employed to clean his boat on the Rio Dulce River.

An alert was raised on a private Facebook page for boaties, with Englishman Alex Carter — who almost died himself in Guatemala waters about a year ago — boarding his small dinghy and battling low visibility to be one of the first to the scene.

“A doctor was injecting him with painkillers because he was in so much pain,” Carter told the New Zealand Herald from his boat, anchored at Rio Dulce.

“I was told his skin was coming off. It was bad, it was raw and it was quite worrying because I didn’t know if it was some sort of contagious skin-eating disease. But I thought I had to help this bloke because I know how it feels to be stuck out on a boat and being in pain.

“He asked me to rub the arm so I was rubbing it and soothing it and telling him, ‘You are going to be okay’, making conversation… he was scared out of his mind.

“We were trying to soothe the pain. He told me many, many times how grateful he was I was there.”

English yachtie Alex Carter helped lead a dramatic rescue mission in the hours of darkness in a Guatemala waterway to try to save Peter Beckett.

Carter had never met Beckett — who had previously posted on social media he had arrived at his “retirement destination” — but after his own near-death experience in the area was touched by his plight.

Just two days before the end of 2023, the Englishman had to be rescued from his boat in Guatemala waters and was later diagnosed with several blood clots on his brain, suffering a succession of strokes.

He was later airlifted to the UK for life-saving treatment.

“It has been a real rough year for me … and as soon as I heard about Peter’s plight I jumped in the dinghy and went straight there,” Carter said.

“I wasn’t even sure if I was a suitable person to go because I have a tiny, little two-horsepower outboard and it took me a fair while to find him.”

A blanket of darkness had engulfed the crocodile-infested Rio Dulce waterway.

Carter’s sole clue was that Beckett was moored near the four-and-a-half-star Mansion Del Rio hotel.

But in “pitch black” and with the external lights of Beckett’s catamaran turned off “it took ages to find it”.

On a fishing trip in the Canadian Rockies, schoolteacher Laura Letts-Beckett drowned under mysterious circumstances, leaving her husband, Peter, as the sole witness.

The Herald reported on Sunday how Beckett had battled several health issues in recent years.

That included a severe leg infection and a kidney ailment during his time living in Central America.

Talking from her base in Vancouver, Donna Turko, KC, said her former client had been battling ill health for some time.

“That man was living on borrowed time,” the Canadian lawyer said.

“But he lived his life to [the] fullest despite the immense stress that surrounded his every step.”

Turko had defended Beckett during his battle to free his name after first being convicted of the 2010 death of his wife Laura Letts-Beckett in 2017. The conviction was overturned on appeal in late 2020.

Letts-Beckett, 50, drowned while on a fishing trip with her husband.

“If you don’t get up now, they will leave you all night, dig deep”

As Carter tried to comfort a very unwell Beckett, further help arrived in the form of four members of the Bomberos; a group of volunteer firefighters.

Carter — who said “things are a bit different out here” in terms of the emergency services in remote Guatemala — said the group’s role includes everything from battling fires to providing medical care and even recovering bodies from the waterway running through Rio Dulce.

Peter Beckett described Central America and Guatemala as his perfect retirement destination. Photo / 123RF

The quartet was clear that Beckett needed to be evacuated from his catamaran as quickly as possible.

But given his size the Bomberos were uncertain if they could safely get him onto the small boat they had used to get there.

“They were worried … that the launch might tip,” Carter said.

The Englishman said he tried to give whatever support he could to the very sick Beckett.

He tried to lift his spirits by finding some humour in the Kiwi’s grim situation.

English yachtie Alex Carter said he never hesitated in volunteering to help after his own near-death experience in Guatemala waters.

They also talked about family, with Beckett telling him he had two daughters and a son.

Beckett also gave Carter the email address for one of his Australian-based daughters so he could contact her later.

But for a while, no matter how much encouragement the kind-hearted Englishman gave, it appeared Beckett couldn’t be moved onto the Bomberos’ small launch.

“Peter was initially saying he might not be able to get up,” Carter said.

A copy of Peter Beckett's passport photo which was shared amongst a private online Guatemala yachting group after the alarm was raised about his health.

“I said to him, ‘If you don’t get up Peter, they said they are going to bring a [bigger] launch but not until the morning. If you don’t get up now, they will leave you all night, dig deep’.

“I was trying to support him. There was no way he wanted to spend any more time there.”

“One of the last images of Peter … is the look of fear on his face when I left him at the ambulance”

Eventually, through the power of persuasion and brute force, Beckett was lifted out of the cabin of his catamaran and towards the tender tied alongside.

It was a process that Carter said took “a very long time”.

The trip back to land — where an ambulance was waiting to take Beckett to the hospital — wasn’t without its perils.

“One guy had to hang over the other side of the launcher so it didn’t tip,” Carter said. “He was hanging over to try and balance the weight a bit.”

Among the medical crew that cared for Beckett before he was taken to hospital was the same doctor who was among the first responders to Carter when he almost died.

Former Napier City Councillor Peter Beckett started a new life in Central America, living on a catamaran, after being freed in Canada after an earlier murder conviction.

“It was all kind of familiar, almost a little too familiar,” Carter confided.

Beckett and his English helper continued to talk as preparations were made for the ambulance to leave.

That included debate over which hospital in the Rio Dulce area to send Beckett to, a $1000-a-night hospital at Morales, which few locals could afford to go to, or the area’s bigger and cheaper hospital used by locals.

Beckett eventually agreed to go to Morales where his chances of getting speedier care were much greater.

Carter promised to email Beckett’s daughter, which he did but without a response.

“One of the last images of Peter, and one which has stuck with me and can’t really get out of my head, is the look of fear on his face when I left him at the ambulance,” Carter said.

“He looked scared.”

The catamaran that was home to former Napier City Councillor Peter Beckett in Central America for the past few years. Photo / Supplied

But he still was confident Beckett would pull through.

“I thought to myself, he is going to be okay just based on how strong he was to get up and out of the bed [on the catamaran]. The effort he made was that of someone who was going to be alright.”

Just before the ambulance doors closed, Carter promised to call Beckett in the morning.

But when he did so, there was no answer. He made more calls in the following days.

Carter later learned Beckett had been transferred to a bigger hospital at Puerto Barrios, where he died.

The news hit him hard and, despite not being a health professional, he questioned if there was anything else he could have done to help the ex-pat New Zealander.

The English yachtie who helped rescue Peter Beckett from his catamaran says he was shattered when he found out the ex-pat Kiwi had died. Photo / Prime Video

“He really appreciated me being there. I imagine I was the last person he spoke to [at length] in his own language. His Spanish wasn’t good,” Carter said.

“I rubbed his arm and his back and told him it would be alright. And I was honoured to do it because of what happened to me. I knew what he felt.”

Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 33 years of newsroom experience.

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